A Company of the Same/Similar Culture

[Southron]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their responses.

[Tuska]

I run for a group of Elves of Mirkwood and it seems to work really well. Some are more prejudiced than others depending on their exposure to Mannish cultures and all of them are slightly stand offish with Dwarves. Currently they are a Scholar, a Slayer, a Wanderer and a Treasure Hunter although this may change as the Scholar has already picked up 2 negative traits.
In terms of traits I said they could choose some of the other ones if it suited their character so they are slightly varied although at first all very similar in terms of Common Skills at first.
The idea is to run through the Darkening and it's been interesting to run and see how they all say they need to up their Riddle or Battle or Travel skills as they progress. In terms of RP I think it works as you are more likely to see a group of Elves together than a mixed bag and it will be interesting to see how much they get involved in and it has allowed me to make it very Woodland Realm focused and look at how their lives have changed as the Dwarven and Mannish kingdoms expand around them whilst they remain the same, shrinking a little in power and grace each year.

[Majestic]

I run for a group of Elves of Mirkwood and it seems to work really well. Some are more prejudiced than others depending on their exposure to Mannish cultures and all of them are slightly stand offish with Dwarves. Currently they are a Scholar, a Slayer, a Wanderer and a Treasure Hunter although this may change as the Scholar has already picked up 2 negative traits.
In terms of traits I said they could choose some of the other ones if it suited their character so they are slightly varied although at first all very similar in terms of Common Skills at first.
The idea is to run through the Darkening and it's been interesting to run and see how they all say they need to up their Riddle or Battle or Travel skills as they progress. In terms of RP I think it works as you are more likely to see a group of Elves together than a mixed bag and it will be interesting to see how much they get involved in and it has allowed me to make it very Woodland Realm focused and look at how their lives have changed as the Dwarven and Mannish kingdoms expand around them whilst they remain the same, shrinking a little in power and grace each year.

That's interesting how your campaign has been more focused on the Woodland Realm. My group (all four Elves, though only two of them from Mirkwood) has spent most of their time travelling and embedded with Mannish cultures, aiding and helping. They've spent very little time actually in the Elven King's halls; I wonder how much they've even remembered that Radagast pointed out their is a traitor there!

[Tuska]

That's interesting how your campaign has been more focused on the Woodland Realm. My group (all four Elves, though only two of them from Mirkwood) has spent most of their time travelling and embedded with Mannish cultures, aiding and helping. They've spent very little time actually in the Elven King's halls; I wonder how much they've even remembered that Radagast pointed out their is a traitor there!

Thanks. I've done something a little different with the traitor and linked it to one of the characters but the idea behind the Woodland Realm focus is do more on how the Elves are affected by the growth in the Mannish cultures on either side of them how some elves embrace the opportunities and gold whereas others become more insular and hostile like the Wayward Elves. Hopefully it will work in the long run.

[Majestic]

I think it's really neat how you've focused things on how Elves would perceive them. I'm sure in many ways, with their exceedingly short lifespans, humans must seem like children to Elves, or perhaps fickle and transitory.

[Elmoth]

We have played as all elves and as all rangers (not using TOR in the later case). These single culture groups felt much more natural to us than the disparate cultures groupings that we have played sometimes. We do not like the later, and even when playing dungeon-like games we tend to go to pure single culture parties. Corvo exlained well the feeling of single party groups when interacting with third parties. The elves were the most special group, since we played a longer campaign, from before the events of the hobbit to the battles of the LotR. Each time they abandoned the forest the world was different and this gave the players a sense of the immortality of the elves an their detachment of the other more short lived cultures.